Archive for February, 2013

Being Amazing!! Australian pop-punk bandtoday released their debut album on 7″ vinyl titled Perfect Male Specimen. The band consists of Wil Wagner from The Smith Street Band on bass and vocals, Tom Lawson a former member of the afore mentioned band on vocals and guitar and Dave Brown on drums. Perfect Male Specimen was recorded and mixed by Damien Maunders at Brady Music and mastered by Jason Sandford at DEX Mastering. The album’s use of fast paced distorted guitar strumming and zealous vocals make this album worth a listen. You can purchase the 7″ from Jack Knife Music, buy the digital version from their Bandcamp page on a “Name Your Price” basis or stream it below.

Track Listing:

Side A
01. Notice of Objection (The First One)
02. All The Things We Would Rather Be Doing
03. Tour Dates
04. 06! 1109! (The Long One)

Side B
05. (Sorry Lucy)
06. The Song That Tom Hates
07. The Drunken Magicians Final Act
08. $$$$ (ATM)
09. Woah!! (The Last One)

Pussy Wizard, lo-fi noise pop project have put out previously unreleased tracks from the old moniker Brave Horatius. Being recorded over ten years, this album encompasses a variety of different musical approaches as his sound evolved into the ability to produce multiple standout tracks. Personal favorites from this release include a gentle love song titled Carolina, Black Eyes, an upbeat track with punk roots, and a Misfits cover of Astro Zombies. Pick up the release on their Bandcamp page on a “Name Your Price” basis, or stream it below.

“I started playing music under the moniker Brave Horatius in 2001 when my parents got me a digital 8-track recorder. My mom had given me a book called Opal. It was the diary of a 6 year old orphaned girl. Brave Horatius was her dog and constant companion. I made a couple of really embarrassing tapes and gave them to a few friends. My punk band had broken up and I was sad because I got dumped for the first time. Typical early 2000’s late-teenage post fuck the system angst all encompassed by the depression of beginning to enter adulthood to a soundtrack of Fevers and Mirrors on repeat. College came with confusion and drinking and smoking and other not-so-hard drugs and more heartbreak and reading Bukowski and thinking “oh I get it now.” Whatever. I made a little zine/CDR EP thing, had a song on a compilation, put out a split, and did a few tours. Moved to San Francisco in 2008. Recorded songs with a 4-track in a vacant apartment above mine. Moved back to South Carolina in 2011 and decided the moniker was exhausted and boring. I worked a decade on trying to capture songs how they were imagined and never got it the way I wanted and I wanted to move on. So I made Pussy Wizard to avoid the seriousness that often leads to huge expectations that often lead to huge disappointments. But here is a time capsule of attempts at making a record I unrealistically imagined for far too long.”

Folk artist Devendra Banhart will release his eighth studio album, Mala, on March 5 through his own label Nonesuch. Banhart uses a mixture of both English and Spanish throughout his soft and smooth folk melodies. From the three tracks that have been released so far, it appears Banhart has shifted to a much more instrumentally sound style. The record feels a lot less raw than previous albums, such as Cripple Crow. This may be a result of the old Hip-hop recorder used for this album, although his sound has ultimately progressed in a subtle way. The album is currently available for pre-order on his website, and you can stream “Never Seen Such Good Things” below.

LI–ON GREVIER is a music collective project introduced by Omri Horwitz who was originally a member of the band The Harold Wartooth, alongside Mike Mikocic. They have now released their first, self-titled, seven track EP.

Their sound can only be explained as incorporating an odd mixture of psychedelic and folk.The collaboration of sounds creates a calming, smooth tone that work perfectly for casual listening. The EP is described as “Collaborations between friends and artists. Everyone with their own backstory, their own influences; musicians” It is not something that was created just for commercial purposes but rather passion to work with friends to generate music that others will enjoy listening too, as much as they enjoyed making it.

“A Toronto music collective, an assembly of musicians and artists with talents that transcend genre and the humility to live their lives earthbound and eternal.”

Julia Brown’s full length album to be close to you has just been released. The release has a lo-fi aesthetic, with toy keyboards, guitars and various other instruments being used in the recording process between Autumn of last year up until last month. The songs as expected are amazing; full of true emotion and anthemic lyrics within an ambient masterpiece of an album. Tonight they are playing a show at College Park with Coma Cinema/Elvis Depressedly, Alex G, Pill Friends andAbi Reimold followed by an upcoming Summer tour.

To support the band, you can buy the album on their Bandcamp page on a “Name Your Price” basis or you can buy the tape version from Birdtapes. The download of the album comes with a fifteen page lyric zine, which is common with Ricky Eat Acid releases and the tape version comes with a sticker by a friend of the band Brad “brohloff”. From the band about the album, “any money paid for this music/donated to us goes towards funding the studio time we have booked between february and april, as well as helping us get the touring setup we need for the summer. please don’t feel obligated to pay, and feel free to grab it for free, but know that if you do donate, the money is helping us make more music.” You can stream the album below and more information about the band can be found on their Tumblr, and Facebook pages.

Compared to their EP this release has a much fuller sound with studio quality production, however it maintains its’ raw sentiment and emotion-driven vocals. Furthermore, much to my delight, three of the tracks from the EP have been revamped and are included on the release. You can buy the album as a 12″ LP or CD from here, and stream it below or on Bandcamp. They also have a spring break tour planned which you can see the dates of below.

Before he embarks on a 28 city tour, the always-hard-working Hoodie Allen first made sure to drop his new 11-track album Crew Cuts. I say this every time Hoodie releases a new project, but it’s clear that he’s been working hard on polishing his sound, diversifying his style (even adding some doo-whop influences in), and improving on his craft. This time around, the former Googler lines up quite a few of his big-name friends (Chiddy Bang, Chance The Rapper, G-Eazy, Skizzy Mars) to rap all over his melodic, laid-back beats. Oh, and it’s free, so be sure to download the MP3s or stream on Soundcloud below.

Bolm released this statement regarding the background and formation of Hesitation Wounds:

“Hesitation Wounds is the combined sound of different backgrounds and 5 hours of song writing. In May of 2012, the idea was to combine friends (some of whom had never met) from different bands and see what could happen in one afternoon. Jeremy Bolm, vocalist of Hesitation Wounds (and Touché Amoré), commented, “I told Neeraj Kane (The Hope Conspiracy, Suicide File, Holy Fever), Jay Weinberg (ex-Against Me!), and Stephen ‘Scuba’ LaCour (Ex-Trap Them, True Cross), ‘Let’s write as many songs as we can on Sunday and record them on Monday.’ Jay was in town and Scuba agreed to come out from Arizona for the weekend. What we came up with was three songs and an intro. We recorded them Monday afternoon with long time friend and always-available-for-my-stupid-shit, Alex Estrada. Lyrically, the songs are about witnessing the murder of a friend, the life and death of the inspirational underdog folk singer Phil Ochs, and the overall reality of life. Sonically, it’s an abrasive / no strings attached outpouring of fast and heavy hardcore not far off from the bands we’re already responsible for. We’re proud of the outcome and we hope you enjoy.”

R.L. Kelly today released her debut solo album accurately titled Life’s A Bummer. The album was mastered by Warren Hildebrand of Foxes In Fixtion and reminds me of the works of Elvis Depressedly and Ricky Eat Acid albeit with female vocals. R.L. Kelly covers one of my favorite Alex G songs titled Change, which I was content to see on the release. The other five original songs emotionally draw you into the lyrical lo-fi atmosphere and leave you mesmerised. R.L. Kelly will also be featured on the new Coma Cinema release. The album is available to download from her Bandcamp page and you can stream it in its’ entirety below.

The Front Bottoms, acoustic punk band from New Jersey have released a video for their track Mountain from their 2011 self titled album. Known for frontman Brian Sella’s relatable lyrics, The Front Bottoms have recently finished recording their sophomore album and now fans are eagerly anticipating a release date.

Here is what Matt Uychich, drummer of the band had to say about the video. “We had picked up a bunch of fireworks on tour and when we got home we had a few days off. So, we called up our good friend Mark Jaworski and asked him if he wanted to bring his camera along, drink Four Loko and light them off. This is what happened.”

You can purchase their self titled album digitally from iTunes, or purchase a 12″ vinyl version of it from Bar/None Records. For more information about the band check out their Facebook page.